The present invention relates generally to computer software and more particularly to a versatile software language tailoring the output from a general purpose computer to control a special purpose system, such as a consumer electronic appliance.
With computers gradually permeating into every home, the convergence of computing and consumer electronics has finally started to happen. This convergence has many compelling applications in areas such as education, entertainment, home security and home automation. However, in order to enhance the convergence, a general purpose computer should be able to control different types of electronics seamlessly and efficiently. This means that various consumer electronic appliances, such as the television, a portable display, a VCR or a camera, should be easily used as input/output extensions of the computer for specific applications. This also means that the computer should be acting somewhat as a server for these appliances.
Previous methods to drive consumer appliances using a computer server are typically based on software and hardware that are specifically tailored to the appliances. The three widely known approaches are the network computer approach, the proprietary format approach and the small but complete computer approach. These approaches are typically not scalable and are relatively inflexible. They attempt to achieve a tightly coupled convergence of the computer and consumer electronics. Each time when a new application is added or a new appliance is included, a new product tying the computer to the electronics has to be built, typically from scratch.
There are also a number of options to connect consumer electronic devices to each other and to computers using various connectivity solutions. The two most popular ones are the Universal Serial Bus and the IFEE 1394 (also known as FireWire). These technologies mainly deal with the physical layer (the media) and the link layer protocols and do not deal with applications. The lack of new applications and application porting have been a major problem facing the widespread deployment of these connectivity standards.
It should be apparent that there is still a need of methods and apparatus for a general purpose computer to control different types of special purpose systems in an efficient manner.